Thalia Vrantsidis

tvrantsidis [at] psychology.msstate.edu

Wondering how to say my name?
It’s pronounced: Thalia (like thalamus)
Vran-CHEE-deez

About me

I am interested broadly in what it means for people to understand, especially in the sense that we find most valuable (as in the ‘aha’ moment of an insight when we suddenly understand something better) and the implications of this across a variety of domains: e.g., how we (mis)understand other people, what we think makes a good explanation, how we resolve emotions. In studying these ideas, my work uses an interdisciplinary approach, which integrates social, cognitive, philosophical, and computational perspectives, and combines human behavioral studies and formal modelling (e.g., Bayesian cognitive modelling).

I am excited to be starting as an assistant professor in the psychology department at Mississippi State University, and I will be recruting grad students (to start fall 2024) and undergradate research assistants (to start 2023). Please reach out if you are interested or have any questions!

I completed a postdoc at Princeton University working with Dr. Tania Lombrozo in the Concepts and Cognition Lab. I completed my Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Toronto working with Dr. William Cunningham.